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Thalanga |
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Queensland, Qld, Australia |
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Zn Cu Pb Ag
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Super Porphyry Cu and Au
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The Thalanga volcanic hosted massive sulphide deposit is located approximately 65 km south-west of Townsville of eastern Queensland in Australia (#Location = 20° 20'S, 145° 46'E).
Thalanga is the largest of a number of similar base metal massive sulphide bodies within the Cambro-Ordovician Mt Windsor Volcanics just to the south of Charters Towers in northern Queensland, Australia. The Mount Windsor volcanic and sedimentary sequence forms a 165 km long, by up to 10 km wide, east-west trending volcano-sedimentary belt from Ravenswood in the east to near Pentland in the west. It has been extensively intruded by the Ordovician to Permian composite Ravenswood Batholith and Lolworth Igneous Complex along its northern margin, and is overlain to the south by the extensive Tertiary alluvials and ferricretes of the Campaspe Beds.
The Mt Windsor Volcanics belong the the Seventy Mile Range Group which commences with a 9 km
thickness of Cambrian mixed volcanics and sediments dominated by continental-derived quartz and lithic rich sandstone, greywacke and siltstone. These are overlain by the 300 to 3500 m thick Cambrian Mount Windsor Formation comprising a sequence of rhyolitic volcanics with minor dacite and rare andesite, while sediments are only found at the base. The Mt Windsor Formation passes conformably upwards into the 500 to 4000 m thick Trooper Creek Formation made up of basaltic, andesitic, dacitic and rhyolitic lavas, intrusions and volcaniclastics, laminated siltstones and mudstones with local graptolites, calcareous meta-sediments, rare microbialites and thin iron stones.
The Thalanga deposit is hosted by rhyolitic lavas and volcaniclastics of the Mt Windsor Volcanics at or close to the their contact with dacites of the overlying Trooper Creek Formation, close to the Cambrian to Ordovician boundary.
The host sequence at Thalanga is composed of acid to intermediate volcanics and volcani-clastics. The immediate hosts are rhyolitic lavas and volcani-clastics, closely below a sequence of more intermediate composition. The main ore is composed of massive and semi-massive sulphides, and is underlain by disseminated and stringer mineralisation and minor stockworks.
The ore is represented by massive, banded and brecciated sulphides comprising sphalerite, pyrite, galena and chalcopyrite, with variable barite. The underlying disseminated and stringer mineralisation is composed of pyrite with associated chalcopyrite, sphalerite and galena.
The main ore lens dips steeply and pitches shallowly, outcropping as scattered gossan over a 550 m length and width of 6 to 22 m.
Barite is locally present in the massive to banded goethite-limonite gossan which was the surface expression of the deposit, exposed over a length og 550 m and average width of 6 m. At least four bands and pod-like bodies of cherty quartz-magnetite are found at Thalanga West within the Trooper Creek Formation, while a few weak bands of quartz-magnetite occur within the altered footwall volcanics of the main Thalanga deposit.
The Thalanga deposit was discovered in 1975 and commenced production in 1989 from open pit and underground operations. Production from Thalanga ceased in 1998, and the mining operations were placed on care and maintenance when the Thalanga mill was converted to process high grade copper ore from the nearby Highway-Reward deposit. From 1998 to 2005, 3.2 Mt @ 6.2% Cu, 1 g/t Au of ore from Highway-Reward was processed through the Thalanga Mill. The Thalanga Operation was acquired by Kagara Limited in 2006, who restarted production, initially processing copper ore from the Balcooma deposit, then refurbishing the Thalanga mill to treat polymetallic massive sulphide ore (producing separate copper, lead and zinc concentrates) from Thalanga. Kagara placed the Thalanga Operation on care and maintenance and then subsequently went into voluntary administration in early 2012. Red River Resources purchased Thalanga from the Kagara liquidators in 2014 and undertook exploration in the area and then commenced mining operations at the West 45 underground polymetallic high-grade massive sulphide deposit in April 2017, which was treated through the Thalanga Mill to produce separate copper, lead and zinc concentrates in September 2017. Production ceased at West 45 in February 2020 when reserves were depleted. Mining continued on the nearly Far West deposit. To 2021, >1 Mt of ore from the West 45 and Far West deposits have been mined at Thalanga. The Wets 45 and Far West deposits are west are within 3 km west of the original Thalanga deposit, whilst Orient is ~2 km to the east. Red River Resources plans to treat ore from their Liontown open pit and underground project at Thalanga, ~32 km to the WNW. Waterloo is ~4 km NE of Liontown.
The pre-mining resource at Thalanga was 6.35 Mt @ 12.3% Zn, 3.9% Pb, 2.2% Cu, 99 g/t Ag, ~1 to 2 g/t Au (Gregory, et al., 1990).
Ore Reserves, Mineral Resources and Production at Thalanga and satellite deposits were as follows, after Beams et al. (2017):
Thalanga District - production 1989 to 1998 - 4.75 Mt @ 8.3% Zn, 2.9% Pb, 2.6% Cu.
Vomacka - production 2010 to 2011 - 0.62 Mt @ 5.0% Zn, 1.6% Pb, 1.6% Cu.
Thalanga, Vomacka and Thalanga East - Resources 2016 - 7.026 Mt @ 11.9% Zn, 3.7% Pb, 2.5% Cu, 97 g/t Ag, 0.6 g/t Au.
West 45 - Resources 2016 - 0.591 Mt @ 8.3% Zn, 3.5% Pb, 0.6% Cu, 69 g/t Ag, 0.3 g/t Au.
Orient - Resources 2016 - 0.54 Mt @ 7.9% Zn, 1.8% Pb, 0.9% Cu, 44 g/t Ag, 0.2 g/t Au.
Remaining Ore Reserves and Mineral Resources at the Thalanga Operation at 30 June, 2020 were (Red River Resources Website, viewed May 2021):
Far West - Proved + Probable Ore Reserves - 1.162 Mt @ 1.2% Cu, 1.5% Pb, 4.5% Zn, 40 g/t Ag, 0.2 g/t Au.
- Measured + Indicated + Inferred Mineral Resources - 1.344 Mt @ 1.6% Cu, 2.2% Pb, 6.5% Zn, 60 g/t Ag, 0.3 g/t Au.
Orient - Measured + Indicated + Inferred Mineral Resources - 0.54 Mt @ 0.9% Cu, 1.8% Pb, 7.9% Zn, 44 g/t Ag, 0.2 g/t Au.
Waterloo - Measured + Indicated + Inferred Mineral Resources - 0.707 Mt @ 1.9% Cu, 1.6% Pb, 11% Zn, 50 g/t Ag, 0.9 g/t Au.
Liontown - Measured + Indicated + Inferred Mineral Resources - 4.138 Mt @ 0.6% Cu, 1.9% Pb, 5.9% Zn, 29 g/t Ag, 1.1 g/t Au.
TOTAL - Measured + Indicated + Inferred Mineral Resources - 6.729 Mt @ 1.0% Cu, 1.9% Pb, 6.7% Zn, 39 g/t Ag, 0.9 g/t Au.
NOTE: Resources include reserves.
The most recent source geological information used to prepare this decription was dated: 1996.
This description is a summary from published sources, the chief of which are listed below.
© Copyright Porter GeoConsultancy Pty Ltd. Unauthorised copying, reproduction, storage or dissemination prohibited.
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Selected References:
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Beams, S.D., Bates, T.,Huston, D.L. and Morrison, I.J., 2017 - Polymetallic massive sulfide deposits of the Mount Windsor Subprovince: in Phillips, G.N., (Ed.), 2017 Australian Ore Deposits, The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Mono 32, pp. 689-692
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Berry R F, Huston D L, Stolz A J, Hill A P, Beams S D, Kuronen U, Taube A 1992 - Stratigraphy, structure, and volcanic-hosted mineralization of the Mount Windsor Subprovince, North Queensland, Australia: in Econ. Geol. v87 pp 739-763
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Bishop J R, Lewis R J G 1992 - Geophysical signatures of Australian volcanic-hosted massive sulfide deposits: in Econ. Geol. v87 pp 913-930
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Gregory P W, Hartley J S, Willis K J A 1990 - Thalanga Zinc-Lead-Copper-Silver deposit: in Hughes F E (Ed.), 1990 Geology of the Mineral Deposits of Australia & Papua New Guinea The AusIMM, Melbourne Mono 14, v2 pp 1527-1537
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Hermann W, Hill A P 2001 - The origin of Chlorite-Tremolite-Carbonate rocks associated with the Thalanga volcanic-hosted massive Sulfide deposit, north Queensland, Australia: in Econ. Geol. v96 pp 1149-1173
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Large R R 1992 - Australian volcanic-hosted massive sulfide deposits: features, styles, and genetic models: in Econ. Geol. v87 pp 471-510
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Large R R, McPhie J, Gemmell J B, Herrmann W, Davidson G J 2001 - The spectrum of ore deposit types, volcanic environments, alteration halos, and related exploration vectors in submarine volcanic successions: some examples in Australia: in Econ. Geol. v96 pp 913-938
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Miller C, Halley S, Green G, Jones M 2001 - Discovery of the West 45 volcanic-hosted massive sulfide deposit using Oxygen isotopes and REE geochemistry: in Econ. Geol. v96 pp 1227-1237
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Paulick H and Franz G 2001 - Greenschist facies regional and contact metamorphism of the Thalanga volcanic-hosted massive sulfide deposit (northern Queensland, Australia): in Mineralium Deposita v36 pp 786-793
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Paulick H, Herrmann W, Gemmell J B 2001 - Alteration of felsic volcanics hosting the Thalanga massive Sulfide deposit (northern Queensland, Australia) and geochemical proximity indicators to ore: in Econ. Geol. v96 pp 1175-1200
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Porter GeoConsultancy Pty Ltd (PorterGeo) provides access to this database at no charge. It is largely based on scientific papers and reports in the public domain, and was current when the sources consulted were published. While PorterGeo endeavour to ensure the information was accurate at the time of compilation and subsequent updating, PorterGeo, its employees and servants: i). do not warrant, or make any representation regarding the use, or results of the use of the information contained herein as to its correctness, accuracy, currency, or otherwise; and ii). expressly disclaim all liability or responsibility to any person using the information or conclusions contained herein.
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